Paylocity is an all-in-one HCM platform that combines payroll, HR, time & attendance, benefits, talent management, and analytics in a single suite.
While it excels at payroll and time tracking, its recruiting module lacks the intelligent matching capabilities that high-volume hiring teams need. Companies looking for a lightweight, quick setup may also find the learning curve steeper.
Our research team invested over 40 hours analyzing Paylocity's platform, integrations, verified user reviews, and real-world implementations. Our detailed Paylocity review reveals where it shines and where add-ons are needed.
Why Trust Our Paylocity Review?
To deliver an honest, comprehensive review, our team followed a thorough research methodology that included:
- Official Product Analysis: Reviewed Paylocity's talent management, payroll, time & labour, and onboarding features using official documentation and product pages.
- Verified User Reviews: Analyzed patterns across 1,000+ verified reviews on G2, Capterra, and others to identify real-world strengths and recurring pain points.
- Role-Based Assessment: Evaluated value for HR leaders, recruiters, finance teams, and hiring managers across all core modules.
- Feature vs. Reality Validation: Cross-checked marketed capabilities against actual user experiences and reported limitations.
This review contains no affiliate links or sponsored content. We prioritize accuracy over promotion.
Paylocity Overview
Paylocity positions itself as a unified HCM platform that combines payroll, HR, time, talent, benefits, employee experience, and finance tools all in one system. The vendor emphasizes integrations, APIs, and AI-driven insights.
These insights help customers automate payroll, lower compliance risks, and make workforce decisions using a single dataset. The product is aimed at small to enterprise buyers who want to streamline tools and scale processes across HR, finance, and IT.
Paylocity Key Features
Below are the standout features of the Paylocity platform:
- Applicant Tracking & Recruiting: Build job applications, centralize candidate files, and manage offers in one flow to reduce manual handoffs in hiring.
- Onboarding Automation: Digitally onboard new hires with task tracking, document collection, and automated checklists. This helps new hires become productive faster.
- Performance Management: Use 9-box assessments, 360 feedback, and templated review cycles. These tools help identify high-potential employees and align their development plans.
- Learning Management (LMS): Access pre-built course libraries and tracking for training and compliance learning across roles.
- Payroll & Tax Management: Automate payroll workflows, tax filings, and support for multi-country payroll. This reduces payroll errors and includes payroll audits.
- Time & Attendance: Capture time via mobile, web, or kiosk. Use geofencing, scheduling rules, and automated time rules to enforce policy and control labour costs.
- Benefits Administration: Simplify open enrollment and benefits operations with enrollment tools, carrier feeds, ACA tracking, and admin analytics.
- Employee Experience & Engagement: Create an internal social hub, conduct pulse surveys with sentiment analysis, and provide recognition tools and engagement dashboards.
- Workforce Planning & Analytics: Plan headcount, align budgets, and create customisable reports to link hiring to finance and business outcomes.
- Integrations & APIs: Use marketplace connectors, API/EDI/SFTP support, and developer tools for custom integrations with HR, ATS, finance, and other systems.
Paylocity Pricing
Paylocity does not publish fixed list prices on its site. Pricing is modular and customized based on the modules selected (HR, Payroll, Finance, IT), company size, and implementation needs. The official guidance is to request pricing or contact sales for a tailored quote.
Pros and Cons of Paylocity
Below are the key strengths highlighted by verified users across review platforms:
- Unified HCM: The platform centralizes payroll, HR, time, benefits, and talent for faster, aligned decision-making across HR and finance.
- Reliable Payroll: Solid payroll accuracy and automated tax processing reduce manual corrections and handle multi-state payroll complexity for small teams and enterprises.
- Integrations & APIs: Extensive marketplace and APIs support ATS, payroll partners, and third-party tools, enabling scalable custom workflows and data synchronization.
- Time & Attendance Depth: Scheduling, geofencing, and automated accruals help control labor costs and maintain compliance across hourly and salaried populations.
- Actionable Analytics: Built-in analytics and headcount planning provide dashboards to forecast hiring needs and align budgets monthly and quarterly.
Despite several benefits, verified users reported these Paylocity limitations:
- Inconsistent Customer Support: Response times and issue resolution quality vary by account team and case complexity, according to multiple reviewer reports.
- Intermittent Technical Bug: Users report occasional UI glitches and technical bugs that disrupt workflows until vendor patches or temporary workarounds are applied.
- Steep Learning Curve for Advanced Modules: LMS, analytics, and complex payroll configurations often require significant setup and dedicated admin training.
- Reporting & Customization Limits: Reviewers request deeper, more flexible reporting and custom fields for complex compensation, audit, or bespoke reporting needs.
- Mobile App Limitations: Mobile functionality and some reports differ from desktop, frustrating distributed or field-based teams that rely on mobile access.
How Can Integrating Skima AI Handle Paylocity Limitations?
Skima AI bridges Paylocity's recruiting gap by adding intelligent candidate screening, talent rediscovery, and matching directly into your existing workflow.
For teams using Paylocity's ATS, Skima AI eliminates manual resume review, surfaces overlooked talent, and provides explainable match scores. All without replacing Paylocity or requiring data migration.
While Paylocity handles payroll, time tracking, onboarding, and compliance, Skima AI focuses on intelligent talent identification and evaluation.
Key Benefits of Paylocity integration with Skima AI:
- AI-Powered Resume Screening: Automatically parse resumes, extract skills, experience, and qualifications. Eliminate hours of manual review while maintaining accuracy and reducing hiring bias.
- Intelligent Match Scoring: Every candidate receives an explainable score showing role fit, skills alignment, and experience gaps. Recruiters confidently prioritize top candidates backed by transparent data.
- Rediscover Overlooked Talent: Automatically surface past applicants and internal candidates from Paylocity who now match open roles. No more manual database searching, qualified candidates surface automatically.
- Explainable AI for Compliance: Hiring decisions are transparent and defensible. Match scores show exactly why candidates are recommended, supporting fair hiring practices and reducing bias.
- Seamless Integration: Works directly within Paylocity's ATS interface with no parallel systems to learn. Data stays secure within your Paylocity environment with SOC 2 compliance and end-to-end encryption.
Who Should Consider Paylocity?
Paylocity is the right choice for:
- Mid-sized to larger organizations that want an all-in-one HCM covering payroll, HR, time, benefits, and talent.
- Teams that value integrations and want a platform they can extend via APIs or a vendor marketplace.
- HR + Finance partnerships that need unified headcount planning and budget alignment.
Who Should Avoid Paylocity?
Paylocity is not ideal for:
- Very small businesses or startups seeking a low-cost, transparent per-user price with minimal setup. Paylocity’s model favors buyers requiring breadth and depth.
- Buyers who need an immediate, clearly documented list of pricing for quick procurement comparisons.
- Teams that want a lightweight, single-purpose ATS without payroll or HR functionality, those buyers will find Paylocity’s breadth unnecessary.
Summary
Paylocity is a strong payroll and employee engagement platform for mid-market firms, offering excellent time tracking, compliance, onboarding, and benefits administration.
However, its recruiting module falls short due to a lack of intelligent candidate matching, resume parsing, and automated screening, making it less suitable for high-volume hiring. Additionally, inconsistent support during implementation and rigid reporting may frustrate users.
Skima AI integrates seamlessly with Paylocity, enhancing its ATS capabilities by providing intelligent recruiting solutions. This integration streamlines candidate screening and matching to transform the hiring process while maintaining the existing Paylocity workflow, ultimately enabling faster, smarter recruitment.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is Paylocity?
Paylocity is a cloud-based human capital management platform offering payroll, HR, time and attendance, benefits administration, talent management, and analytics. This platform helps small to mid-size and enterprise employers improve their workforce operations.
2. Is Paylocity legit?
Yes, Paylocity is a legitimate, publicly traded HR and payroll software company with enterprise customers, regulated payroll processes, dedicated account teams, and consistent presence across verified review platforms and industry reports.
3. How much does Paylocity cost?
Paylocity uses custom, modular pricing based on selected modules, company size, and implementation scope; public list prices aren’t published, so organizations must request a tailored quote from Paylocity sales for accurate costs.
4. Can Paylocity handle multi-state payroll and taxes?
Paylocity handles multi-state payroll with automated tax calculations, filings, garnishment processing, and compliance workflows. It provides consolidated payroll reporting and audit logs to help HR reconcile multi-jurisdiction payroll accurately and efficiently.
5. How does Skima AI work with Paylocity for recruiting?
Skima AI integrates via secure APIs to enrich Paylocity candidate records, delivering automated resume scoring, ranked shortlists, contextual recommendations, and continuous learning from hiring outcomes to improve screening accuracy and speed.
6. Will integrating Skima AI require heavy configuration in Paylocity?
Integration requires mapping candidate fields, configuring access permissions and API endpoints, and defining workflows; expect an initial configuration phase, validation tests, and minimal ongoing maintenance once mappings and syncs are productionized.
